I think it seems to bring out the drums (and the cymbals especially) in a very pleasing way without sounding too bright. Slow attack, fast recovery, and HP SC filter activated on both (Manley's is not controllable other than on/off but I like to filter everything below 200hz on the Fairchild.) So I set up the Fairchild MKII and Manley Vari-Mu for equal amounts of GR and equal output levels and let 'er rip.

For mastering acoustic music, I generally don't like to hear the compressor squeezing any harder than just about 1.5 or 2db of GR off the peaks. I can really hear the warmth and subtle crunch of the digitally emulated tube circuit even only compressing for ~2db GR max on the peaks.

On my material the Vari-Mu seems to be a little more even-keeled sounding and a little less 3D than the Fairchild, if that makes sense, but in a positive way. I'm totally impressed! For me it does not out-do the Fairchild, it's just different. I set it up on the Stereo Buss for a premastering audition vs. Wow I just auditioned the Vari-Mu on a mix I'm working on. But when you buy it, by all means invest some time with the manual and a variety of source signals for experimentation. Probably not something you want to mess with during the demo period-just enjoy playing with it. It's not a simple technique, and it bears investing a bit of time to suss out how it can be put through its paces. But if you read the Manley manual, you'll see that the Variable-Mu knee can be manipulated indirectly, and I advise you to experiment with it. Yes the Fairchild can compress harder, and the knee is directly adjustable. I'd say a combination of headroom and wet/dry blend should solve that problem.Īs for the differences in sound and capabilities, the Fairchild has a definite vintage vibe going on, while the Manley sounds more modern, though still tubey-licious.

And we don't all use them at the same point in the mix path, so the input level in is going to vary a lot. Couldn't have characterized it better myself.Īs for it getting dirty-ish easily, you might want to make use of the headroom adjustment, which was a brilliant inclusion by UA, because we don't all hit these devices in the digital domain the way we'd be likely to with the hardware.

Fairchild uad